Business: Sperry Rand: A Pace Forward

It was not, claimed Sperry Rand Corp., a response to the feminist movement but simply a good business decision to add Economist Norma Pace, 50, to its board of directors early this month. That seems obvious. A consultant specializing in business and economic forecasting for such firms as General Motors, Sears, Roebuck, and General Electric, slender and risk Mrs. Pace had developed a novel early warning system for detecting economic change, based on such factors as population patterns, consumer spending and political trends. She is also, it happens, an attractive and quite feminine executive.

Her first foray into “alien” male territory came in 1952 when, as a staff member of the U.S. Economics Corp., she prepared and delivered a forecast for Ford executive, then found herself presenting it in person. She was asked back for a follow-up and has not felt awkward in all-male company since. She rose to become president of U.S. Economics Corp. in 1969, engineered a merger with Lionel D. Edie & Co., then joined the American Paper Institute in 1973 as a vice president and picked up a directorship of Sears. Along the way she forged a new approach to economic forecasting.

Says Mrs. Pace, “Today we still use formulas but add in other factors, many entirely judgmental. Forecasting today is more of an art than a science.” Mrs. Pace admits that in the world of business “you sometimes do have limitations as a woman.” What might those be?

After a pause she notes, “It has not always been easy to ask a man out to lunch.”